1960s Essay | The Nineteen Sixties Riots: Disasters Waiting to Happen

The Nineteen Sixties Riots: Disasters Waiting to Happen

Summary: This piece examines the riots of the nineteen sixties and their causes.

The 1960s was a very turbulent time in American history. Cities across the country saw hundreds of incidents of racial violence. Various federal and state commissions were assembled to investigate the causes of these riots. Each individual riot had its own specific immediate precipitating incidents--"among them the Chicago riots of 1965 which erupted after a Negro woman was accidentally killed by a fire engine and the Daytona riots of 1966, which broke out after a Negro man was deliberately gunned down from a passing car" (Fogelson 217). Although race riots did occur, in part, because of the incidents, these were not the true causes. These events were only the catalyses that pushed people over the edge and caused them to go ballistic. The true causes of these race riots had been brewing under the surface for decades, just waiting for a crack to burst...